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Egypt
Egypt One of the oldest civilizations in the world. Egypt lies in northern part of Africa, and the civilization runes along the Nile River. Through time the power of Egypt has waxed and waned, and many periods of greatness has come and gone. Now sadly the Egypt has been conquered first by the Akkadians, and now by the Persians. The great periods of ancient Egypt was: * Old Kingdom (2686–2181 BCE): The era of Pyramid building. Though little is known from this period, it is the period where the great pyramids was build under the Pharaohs of Cheops, Khefren and Menkaure (and many other lesser known Pharaohs). Also the Vizir Imhotep is from this period. * Middle Kingdom (2134–1690 BC): Seen as the Golden Age of Egypt, many great Warrior Pharaohs, help to expand the Egyptian Empire. The Egyptian expansion into Nubia to hold, and the pharohs led several campaigns into the Levant. * New Kingdom (1549–1069 BC): Although the Middle Kingdom was seen as the Golden Age, the New Kingdom was even greater, the Egyptian empire was even bigger, it controlled Nubia through a great array of Fortresses, and it conquered the Levant up to the area around Carchemish. Famous from this period is Ramses the Great, who ruled over Egypt for several generations, he fought the Hittite Empire in on of the most famous battles of the ancient world, the battle of Kadseh, and is the Pharaoh who build most in Egypt. The New Kingdom was also a time of great darkness and strife under the heretic Pharaoh Ankhenaten, who change the ancient Egyptian Religion, from the worship of many gods, to only worshiping the Aten, with Akhenaten as the only intermediary. * The fall of the New Kingdom lead to the conquest of Egypt by the newly risen Nubian Kingdom of Kush. The Nubian's saw the Egyptian Culture as a great one, and tried to emulate its religion, art, and architecture. They even went so far as to begin burying the kings in pyramids again. The Nubians tried to expand into the Levant but was pushed back by the Neo-assyrian empire. * The Neo-assyrian empire conquered the northern part of Egypt, and through several generations the assyrians conquered the rest of Egypt, and placed a vassal king to rule Egypt. But over a couple of generations the vassal kings broke free from the Assyrian Empire. Which lead to the rise of the Saite Dynasty. * When the Assyrian empire came under attack, by an alliance of Medes, Persians, Babylonian and Scythians, the Saite Kings send an army to help the old masters, but they came to late. This lead to an extended Egyptian military campaign in the Levant, trying to take control of the leftovers of the Assyrian Empire. But in time they were pushed back and in 525 BCE Egypt was by the Persian Empire. Government Egypt has through all times been ruled by its god-kings the Pharaohs (Pharaoh, comes from the Egyptian words pr-'3, meaning "Great House"). Under the pharaoh was two Vizirs, one for Lower Egypt, one for Upper Egypt. Egypt was divided into 52 Nomes, and each nome was ruled by a Nomarch. Aside from the nobles ruling, Egypt had a gigantic bureaucratic infer structure, which helped control the country. Military Egypt did not have a standing military until the end of the New Kingdom, and it wasn't until the Saite periode that it had a navy. Egypt's military was mostly lightly armed infantry and Chariots. Though they fought many campaigns, Egypt never had an advanced military structure, along the lines of the many other Empire from the period. Religion Like all the other empires from the period, Egypt had many many different gods. But the Egyptian gods were different than those of others: Egyptian Gods were often depicted with animal attributes, like the Hawk-headed Horus or the Jackal headed Anubis. But the gods could also just be represented by an animal. This lead many of the other religions to view the Egyptians as odd or strange, because they worship animals. But Egypt was also seen the birthplace of magic, and many of the greatest seers, magician and healers came from Egypt. This was in part due to the age of Egypt, and the fact that they could trace their linage and great occult knowledge to the beginning of the Egyptian Empire.